AIBRIEF
The 2018 Export Control Reform Act (ECRA) banned support for foreign military intelligence but left civilian led agencies uncovered; the letter asks Commerce to finalize a 2022 rule that would close that gap.
Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and John Cornyn (R-TX) sent Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick a letter dated Aug. 25, 2026, asking the Trump administration to bar U.S. persons and companies from helping Chinese and Russian civilian intelligence and security agencies. The lever is specific: finalize the implementing rules for a 2022 measure meant to close a gap in the 2018 Export Control Reform Act (ECRA).
ECRA barred Americans from supporting foreign military intelligence services but left civilian-led agencies, the domestic bureaus that report to ministries of state security, outside its reach. A 2022 law directed Commerce to extend those controls, including to facial-recognition items. The Bureau of Industry and Security proposed the rule in 2024 and has not finalized it.
The letter cites 2019 Reuters reporting on the United Arab Emirates hiring more than a dozen former U.S. intelligence operatives to hack dissidents, journalists, and Americans as the precedent that exposed the gap. Co-signers include Sen. Peter Welch (D-OR) and Reps. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Pat Harrigan (R-NC), and Sara Jacobs (D-CA).
The request lands weeks before Chinese President Xi Jinping's expected visit to Washington next month and alongside bipartisan criticism of the administration's decision to allow Nvidia to sell advanced AI chips to China. Commerce and the Russian and Chinese embassies in Washington did not immediately respond. Watch: whether BIS finalizes the 2024 rule, whether Lutnick responds, and whether any Xi-visit action cites the civilian-intelligence gap.